Grains with Ben & Amy Willis-Becker : RGK Cooking School Ep. 1
Thank you everyone who tuned in to the first class in our Cooking School series on Instagram Live. This class with Ben and Amy Willis-Becker was all about Grains - those partially-ignored staples in the back of your pantry. Below are some highlights and recipes! If you are enjoying this content, please help support our local food industry professionals by donating to the RGK Cooking School Fund.
Here are a few links to our favorite overnight oats and polenta fries recipes:
4 Ways to Make Overnight Oats and Epicurious Baked Polenta Fries.
Notes and recipes by Ben & Amy Willis-Becker
(GENIUS) ALL-PURPOSE GRAIN COOKING METHOD
This method can be used with almost any grain. Cook the grain as you would pasta. At least 8x the water, bring to a boil, salt generously. Rinse grains and place in water. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until done.
QUINOA TABBOULEH
4 Servings
1/2 cup Quinoa, dry
1 med Carrot, small dice
1 cup Cucumbers, small dice
3 each Radishes, small dice or slice
2 each Lemons, zested and juiced
3 Tbsp Olive oil
¼ cup Flat leaf Parsley leaves
¼ cup Cilantro leaves
¼ cup Mint leaves, torn into bite sized pieces
Place a 1-2 gallon stock pot filled with water on the stove top. Turn the heat to high, cover and let the water come to a boil. Prepare the veg according to the directions listed on the recipe next to each item and measure the olive oil. Place the quinoa in a strainer and rinse 1-2 minutes while squeezing the quinoa to help get rid of the bitter compound called saponin. Once the water is boiling place, salt it generously and place the quinoa in the water. Reduce the heat to simmer. Let the quinoa cook for 10 minutes and check its doneness. There will be a white sprout “endosperm” floating in the water, which will indicate the quinoa is close to done. It will take a total of 10-14 minutes for most varieties. Once you see lots of white “sprouts” floating around, remove a couple of seeds and check for doneness. The quinoa should be soft with just a little chew. When done, strain, let rest, then fluff with a fork. Let cool and then place in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, mix, taste, adjust seasoning, and enjoy.
BAKED OATMEAL
RGK Test Kitchen Notes: We love this dish because it comes together easily and is friendly to substitutions. Ours still had some liquid at the bottom after it was baked (steel cut oats vary and we weren’t very precise with our soaking time), so we would probably reduce the liquid by 1/2 c next time. We like cinnamon and vanilla so we increased vanilla to 1/2 tsp and next time would increase the cinnamon to at least 1/4 tsp. In what turned out to be a happy mistake, we forgot the brown sugar when we mixed all of the ingredients, so we sprinkled it on top when it was nearly done, left the dish uncovered and put it back in the oven for a few more minutes. We ended up with a perfectly sweet, caramelized top. Our tasting panel pronounced it delicious!
4 Servings
½ cup Steel cut oats
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Raisins
2 Tbsp Apricots, diced
1 small Apple, diced
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1 pinch Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 cup Milk
1 cup Water
1/8 tsp Vanilla
1 Tbsp Butter
Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour 4 cups boiling water over steel cut oats and let sit until water is cool, approximately 30 minutes. Strain the oats and leave them in a bowl. Place the other ingredients in the bowl. Mix until everything is evenly distributed. Then pour into an appropriate size shallow baking dish, cover with parchment paper if available and then aluminum foil. If you do not have parchment, cover with foil. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 30-45 minutes. When done, remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes.